UMass has reached an agreement with ELEVEN SPORTS/NESN to televise Minutemen home games in 2017. In addition, the game will be available FOR FREE, streamed from the UMass web site.
Mike Traini of "Fight Massachusetts" has a post on the TV deal.
This took a while, but it ended well. I doubt UMass receives much in the way of financial compensation, but the Minutemen get a professionally-run production package. Having NESN involved is huge. NESN and NESN+ are picked up nationally by a number of satellite/cable networks. In addition, if all else fails, UMass fans can get live streaming video from the Minutemen website.
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The Utah Daily Herald predicts Cougars 56-UMass 3. After the egg we laid in the second half in Provo last year, we can't blame BYU fans for being confident.
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Matty Vautour has a story on Derek Dumais, the new starting center and the UMass offensive line.
Matty reports the UMass starting OL will be:
RT -- Jake Largay RSJR 6-4 325 12-8 GP-GS
RG--Jack Driscoll RSSO 6-5 300 9-8 GP-GS
C--Derek Dumais RSSO 6-4 330 10-0 GP-GS
LG--Lucas Kotler RSJR 6-4 315 Redshirted in 2016, 17-0 GP-GS in 2016 and 2015
LT--Rayquan Thomas SO 6-5 350 12-12 GP-GS Down about 40 pounds since last year
Backups:
Mike Yeradi--RSSO 6-4 315 7-0 GP-GS in 2016
Larnel Coleman--RSFR 6-7 300 Redshirted in 2016
This is a young offensive line with no seniors in the top six. A goal for 2017 would be more production for the UMass running game. UMass was #124 in rushing offense in 2016. Part of that was playing all those Power Five schools last year. Not many Group-of-five teams rack up big rushing totals against SEC teams, but we need to do better than 3.3 yards/rush that we totaled last year.
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Howard Herman of the Berkshire Eagle reports UMass is gearing up for the 2017 season.
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